Commands, skills, and examples

Choose how to run Vale

Claude Code exposes plugin skills as namespaced slash commands. Codex supports skill mentions and a skill picker. Its optional custom prompt command requires the separate user installation. Codex 0.158.0 does not recognize custom prompt commands; use /skills or a skill mention on that version. The clients do not use identical command syntax.

Review without editing

Claude Code:

/vale:check-prose README.md docs/installation.md review only

Codex:

$vale:check-prose Review README.md and docs/installation.md without editing.

The skill runs Vale and reports the file, line, rule, and suggested correction. If no files are specified, it uses relevant edits from the conversation or asks for scope. It does not silently scan your entire repository.

Fix findings

/vale:check-prose docs/guide.md fix the findings and verify the result

In Codex:

$vale:check-prose Fix the Vale findings in docs/guide.md, then check it again.

On older Codex clients that support the legacy prompt command:

/prompts:vale docs/guide.md fix the findings and check again

The agent preserves technical meaning, code examples, identifiers, and URLs. It checks the edited files again and reports any unresolved findings. The checker itself does not rewrite files or weaken your policy.

Write new documentation

/vale:google-prose Write a setup guide for the existing server in docs/setup.md.

In Codex:

$vale:google-prose Rewrite the installation section for a first-time contributor.

The writing skill applies Google documentation style and verifies the result with the same checker. Both skills can also be selected automatically for relevant natural-language requests, such as “check these docs with Vale.”

Check edits from other tools

Ask either agent to update a document with a shell script, editor, patch, or MCP tool. The pre-tool hook records the initial file state. The post-tool hook checks observed changes, regardless of the tool name. The Stop hook checks touched files before the turn ends and can request one correction pass.

Tools that only change remote documents are outside this local-file workflow. A failed Claude Code tool call can skip PostToolUse; its local changes are checked by the next successful post-tool event or the Stop event.

Run without an agent

From a source checkout, check selected files:

python3 plugins/vale/scripts/prose_lint.py --check ./README.md ./docs/usage.md

The script accepts file paths, not directories. For another workspace, run from that workspace and use the absolute path to the checker. This preserves project configuration discovery. Prefix filenames that start with a hyphen with ./.

Exit code 0 means no findings, 1 means findings, and 2 means a wrapper or dependency error. Vale's own configuration diagnostics can also appear with exit code 1; inspect the message before treating it as a prose finding.

Project policy

An existing .vale.ini takes precedence. Keep project vocabulary and deliberate exceptions there; see configuration. Neither skill turns off rules just to make a check pass. A clean check covers the configured rules, not every editorial recommendation in the Google style guide.